‘And? Get to the point,’ Tiago said.

Yannic gave them a wide grin. ‘Morale is shaky, to say the least. There will be lots of drinking and rousing Norlander drinking songs.’

Joe remembered the meeting he’d sneaked into: how he’d sung along, how he’d almost been tempted to join them, till he heard their true beliefs.

‘The youngest soldiers are skittish and scared. They’ll throw gallons down their throats, not notice a thing. They are ready to fall apart, oh yes.’ Yannic rubbed his hands. ‘Right. Now I need to get back before they miss me.’

They watched him wobble away, back towards the tunnel entrance.

‘I can’t believe we’re trusting him,’ Tiago said in the si­lence that followed.

‘It’ll be fine, trust me instead,’ Joe said. He knew Yannic wouldn’t let them down, now he understood his thirst for revenge. The same impulse was pushing him onwards, keep­ing his focus steady.

The next day was strange and hot. From the moment he woke, Joe felt nervous. To calm himself, he talked to Ren. She’d slept pressed up against his side, her body almost as long as his when she stretched out.

‘Morning, you.’ Her head resting on his chest was heavy these days, and her warm breath smelled smokily of cinders and charred meat.

She opened one golden eye and her left ear twitched as he murmured to her. 245

‘Can you spare me again, just for an hour? I need to work on our backup plan. You stay here with Winter and Fidell?’

Now Ren retreated from him, and curled up small, her wings folded, her ears flat on her purple scaly head. She could make herself surprisingly compact when she was unhappy.

‘I’m sorry, but there’s one other thing I also need to do.’ Joe leaned over, stroking her scales.

Mraa, she said softly. She raised her head and looked at him through those golden oval eyes.

He felt terrible. ‘I’m doing this for us,’ he whispered, ‘to make our island safe again. I’ll be as quick as I can.’

She blinked once and he took that as reluctant agreement.

‘Ren?’ Winter called, stretching out her hand. ‘Would you like to join me and Fidell?’

Ren slunk over and let herself be cuddled, while Winter dug out scraps of dried meat from her pockets for both shadow dragons.

Joe left without looking back, while Ren was distracted. He knew the tunnels well enough now not to need his map. He used the western beach entrance and crept past the warehouses into the dock area.

He had only seen Arcosi like this once before, on Hatching Day. The busy harbour and the surrounding streets were almost empty, baking in the hot morning sun. The heat radiated up from the earth. He wore the plain old clothes that he’d grabbed on his visit home – nothing to connect him to dragons – and his shirt was soon sticking to his back with sweat. 246

Each street corner had a couple of black-clad members of the Brotherhood, nervously shifting from foot to foot like a pair of crows.